While I lived on the farm, I usually investigated any gun shots that I could hear in that valley.
Walking by a school the person should have investigated the disturbance and attempted to stop whatever was going on.
223/ 556 is not a “High Powered” rifle round. That is why I had 308 and 300 Win Mag.

I am aware of the noise from that round, as I have fired enough of them. For long range I still prefer 308, which is even more noisy. I was shooting steel plates at 150 to 200 yards for practice on my private range. There was a major difference in the damage caused by a 223 and a 308.

Shooting a magnum slug 100 yards it helps to have a sighting system. Also for quick acquisition it helps to have a holographic sight, such as an ACOG 4X.
It was the same sight I used on my 556 and my Bushmaster 450 “Thumper”.

I have a Winchester 1300 “Deer Slug” with 2x scope which I use with a rifled choke for deer and an extra full choke for turkey. With sabot slugs it will group 4″ at 100 yards. In most of Southern Ontario, deer hunting can only be done with shotgun and muzzle loader. To bad because I would like to try deer hunting with my great grandfathers Winchester ’94 in 38-55 just for nostalgia.

In the “flat lands” of the east coast, shot guns are required for all hunting (except some ground game like rabbits). The argument is that a rifle shot would carry too far if it missed (no hills to stop it).

However you can order a rifled barrel for most any Mossberg and possibly Remington shotgun.
I had a spare rifled barrel cut to 18.5 inches as it has the rail to mount a holographic sight and laser. It was a PDW for home defense. It also had a serious light mounted to it.
This one: